The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventor(s), to the extent the work is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Counterfeiting of consumer products is a continuing difficulty for product manufacturers and retailers. For example, counterfeiters may swap counterfeit products for genuine products by buying a genuine product from a retailer and then returning a counterfeit product to the retailer for a refund while keeping the genuine product. Thus, the retailer is left with a counterfeit product and few ways to verify authenticity of the product to prevent this from happening.
Additionally, in certain products with limited capabilities, such schemes may be more common and present greater difficulties because verifying whether a returned product is genuine is very difficult. For example, products such as headphones or other devices that receive input but do not provide communications in return present significant difficulties for verifying authenticity because of the one way communications pathway.